Comments on music 02/15/24

Matt wants us to achieve proper choral pronunciation. Expect to hear this repeatedly. Following are things to practice. ‘The’ is never pronounced ‘theh’. Before a word beginning with a consonant, it is pronounced ‘thuh’; before a word beginning with a vowel sound, it is pronounced ‘thee’ (note that ‘hour’ begins with a vowel sound). Vowels should be ‘tall’ referring to the shape of your mouth. Drop your jaw and open your mouth to avoid a nasal twang. On longer notes, do not close to an ending consonant until the end of the note. This is particularly important with an ending ‘s’ to avoid the dreaded snake pit sound. In longer notes containing a diphthong (long ‘I’, actually ‘ah-ee’, or ‘ou’ in ‘hour’, pronounced ‘ow-uh’) don’t change to the second vowel sound until the end of the note. Don’t chew ending ‘r’ but just barely pronounce it. Don’t overstress schwa sounds, such as ‘a’ in balloon, 'e' in problem, 'i' in family.

Stand By Me – Page 12, Measure 81, rit. to end, WTD.

Heading Home – ‘the’ is pronounced ‘thee’ at Page 3, Measure 8, Page 5, Measure 33, Page 9, Measure 64.

Blue Moon – Basses, learn the ‘bom, ba ba bom’ string of words starting at Page 4, Measure 11, and at Page 5, Measure 20, and at Page 9, Measure 53; if everyone is not together, it sounds like mush in the mouth singing.

Sunrise, Sunset – the dim. and rit. at Page 7, Measure 69, does not apply to the first time through, only the second time when the end of the song is coming up.

Go in Peace, Walk in Hope, Live in Love – Vera used a very useful technique in our sectionals to help us memorize the words by having us work on the words of the chorus first. A study of how professional musicians memorize music found that about 15 to 20 percent start at the end, and gradually work their way forward. Their rationale is that as they start moving toward the beginning, they are always headed toward something they know. They are less stressed and find it easier to work on memorizing new material because they will be coming to something that is less work. YMMV. I think the sheet Vera handed out is easier to use than the one that was distributed by email.